YOUNG DAYS OF TOMMRIDDLE
by TheRealLifeHP
Summary: What we don't know about Voldemort is his childhood. As the title suggests, it's about the childhood of Voldemort.
1. Chapter 1

YOUNG DAYS OF TOM.

CHAPTER 1- FAMILY HISTORY & BIRTH

The Gaunts were the last known descendents of Salazar Slytherin. The last-known head of the Gaunt family was Marvolo Gaunt. They were pure-bloods and wanted to keep up the tradition. He had two children, Merope and Morfin Gaunt and lived in a valley called Little Hangleton. They owned a large house here and were rather unpopular as they behaved like snobs.

Around the area in which the Gaunts stayed, there lived a well-to-do Muggle family called the Riddles. They owned half of the valley of Little Hangleton. Thomas and Mary Riddle owned it and it would be passed down to their son, Tom Riddle Sr.

Young Merope Gaunt fell for Tom. She hid in the bushes of his house just to get glimpses of her sweetheart.

Marvolo found out about Merope's infatuation for Tom. He didn't like this idea. So he and Morfin confronted Tom when he was alone and hexed him. Soon Tom was covered in deadly hives. This was a violation of a law set by the Ministry of Magic so Marvolo and Morfin were sent to Azkaban for a short period. The Accidental (or in this case deliberate) Magic Reversal Squad was sent to Little Hangleton and Tom was relieved of his hives and his memory too was modified so that he remembered nothing related to Marvolo and hives.

Unfortunately for poor Merope Tom loved another. Merope got so sick and jealous, that when Tom's lover wasn't around, she gave him Amortententia, the most powerful love potion in the world. Tom fell unconditionally in love with Merope.

They ran away and held a marriage that was secret. No one was invited, nor was anyone invited.

Merope kept giving Tom Amortentia even after their marriage. They went to live in a little house in a rather remote area. Within three months of a happily wedded life, Merope started expecting a child. She thought that it was high time she stopped giving Tom the love potion. Either he might have fallen for during this period, or he would at least stay with her until her child was born.

But neither of this happened. As soon as she stopped giving him the potion, he said that he had been tricked into marrying Merope and left the poor girl crying at the doorstep of a small house in an unknown area, far away from any sort of civilization.

Merope went about roaming the land, carrying an unborn child inside her. For 9 months she roamed here and there. At the end of the ninth month, she felt a pain in her womb. The baby was about to be born. Luckily for Merope, she was near a Muggle settlement. She went to the place and knocked on the door of the nearest house as loudly as she could and fainted due to the excruciating pain.

She woke up after two hours. She was still faint and the family that brought her in was standing around her. She took one glimpse of the baby, happily lying in the arms of the mistress's and told them in a weak voice "Name him Tom Marvolo Riddle, after his father and grand-father." These were the last words spoken by Merope Riddle and she was no more.

The host who brought Merope in, took the child to the orphanage of the settlement. They gave Tom the head of the orphanage and told them what had happened. They also said that they would have brought him up, but they were financially low, so had no other choice than to give the young baby Tom to the orphanage.


	2. Chapter 2 - THE ORPHANAGE AND TOM

CHAPTER 2 – THE ORPHANAGE AND TOM

Tom was brought up in the orphanage and spent most of his childhood there. The orphanage was a small one, housing only ten boys (including Tom) and seven girls.

The orphanage gave basic education classes for the children, just so that they knew how to read and write and know their numbers.

The children had to attend these classes between the ages of five to seven. Tom started attending these classes from when he was five. He was a fast learner, hence he learnt everything the basic education classes could teach him. He was thirsty for knowledge, always reading something or the other. By the age of seven, Tom had finished most of the famous Muggle classics of his time. Tom didn't limit his reading only to fiction, he also enjoyed reading text-books that gave him knowledge. In fact, he used to snitch the news-paper in the morning from the orphanage supervisor's office and read it from cover to cover.

The teachers who taught the letters and numbers were astounded by this young boy's thirst for knowledge. They had never seen any child so much ahead of the class who were just learning to read and write words like 'cat' and 'dog'. They realized that Tom had to go to the public school to quench his thirst for knowledge. The management was more than willing to agree to send him to school, but, where would they get funds from? They were finding it just enough to run the orphanage with these many children, how can they get money for just one child's education?

They were just about to give up when the management started receiving anonymous letters (more likely envelopes), filled with money and it was addressed to 'Tom Riddle'. This left the rather bewildered. There were no known relatives of young Tom, so who would have sent these envelopes? There was no mistake. The management enquired around the settlement, asking whether any Riddles lived around. But there were none. So, all the money was for Tom. Now, they could send Tom to school.

This was great news for Tom. His birthday was celebrated only the previous week. He was now eight and going to school was like a birthday gift. This was because firstly, he loved to learn anything new. And secondly, he didn't like his fellow companions. In fact, he hated them.

All the other children thought he was weird and dangerous. Dangerous, because once when Tom was six, a boy called Robbie Mellorn teased him. Tom didn't like it at all and rage was building up inside him. When it reached its peak, without knowing what was happening, he sent a stone flying to Robbie and it broke Robbie's nose. Weird, because Tom never even touched the stone. It magically became air-borne and flew with great speed towards Robbie's nose, like as if Tom was urging it to go, as if he had magical powers. After this incident, the children stood clear away from Tom.

There was a little copse just a little bit away from the orphanage and the children were warned against going there, because it was infested by snakes. There were no hard and fast rules preventing a child from going there, but they were strictly cautioned against going in there.

A few weeks after the Robbie Mellorn incident, as it was called henceforth, all the boys in the orphanage surrounded Tom and bashed him up badly. Robbie was popular amongst the boys in the orphanage and all of them wanted to take revenge on sullen, haughty Tom Riddle (I guess he took after Marvolo in some way.). All his powers weren't of any use then. He had to manage being bashed up and when they finished, poor sobbing Tom ran into the thicket, forgetting all the warnings against going in there.

Tom sat down in the middle of the thicket and sat there, sobbing. What he didn't notice, was that all the snakes in the copse started to slither to where he was sitting. The queen of the snakes (queen because she carried herself with poise and decorum and the snakes bowed as she passed) was a King Cobra, a majestic dark brown snake with glittering scales. She came up to Tom and asked in a snakey voice, "Who are you sss?" Tom looked up and got a shock seeing a King Cobra looking at him. He gave a scream and jumped back, narrowly missing stepping on a snake's tail. It gave a sharp, warning 'sss' which scared Tom and he took another step back and was again greeted by a sharp 'sss'. Soon, the whole copse was filled with angry 'sss', until the King Cobra opened her hood and said loudly, "Sssilencssse!"

All the snakes stopped squirming and 'sss'ing. Even Tom was frozen in his tracks.

"Now, thatsss better sss." Said the King Cobra, with satisfaction. "Now, who are you youngling sss?" "I'm Tom Riddle. I stay in the orphanage not far from here. And who are you, madam?" asked Tom, rather frightened. "I am the queen of sssnakesss, Queen Nagini. It'sss not often we find a youngling among our midssst. You mussst be ssspecial, to be here, unssscathed." said Nagini. "Well, actually I'm rather unpopular at the orphanage. None of the children play with me. I love reading, but no one is willing to accept me as a friend. I threw a stone unwillingly at a boy, and broke his nose. It happened by mistake, but all his friends joined together and bashed me up not more than ten minutes ago. That's why I came here, to cry in total privacy." said Tom, rather forlornly. "Poor boy," said Nagini, sympathetically. "Even I had no friendsss, but look at me now sss! I am the ruler of sssnakesss! Ssso don't worry, dear boy, you'll be faousss like me, one day." "Will you be my friend, Queen Nagini?" asked Tom eagerly. "Of courssse, Tom. And you needn't call me 'queen' sss. We are equalsss now that we are friendsss." said Nagini with a snakey smile.


End file.
